Compassion and Service in Buddhism

Chapter 13 in Compassion in the 4 Dharmic Traditions:
Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism

edited by Ved P. Nanda
PRABHAT PRAKASHAN
2016

Presented on
September 12-14, 2014
for Uberoi Foundation for Religious Studies
Naropa University
Boulder, Colorado

Compassion and Service in Buddhism

Cherishing and caring for others is the source of all happiness. Cherishing ourselves over others,

is the source of all suffering and negative conditions. - Śāntideva 

Compassion as an impetus for selfless service to others in the Dharmic tradition of Buddhism is a compelling topic for our troubled times. Sudden and unexpected tragedies due to human folly, accidents and environmental fluctuations are occurring simultaneously in all regions of the globe. Relatively isolated populations on distant continents are now aware of each other and interconnected as individuals and groups. Thanks to satellite television and Internet streaming video, viewers on every continent can see, hear and feel the distress of distant people within their own country and around the world instantaneously as if they were close neighbors. They can also re-experience traumatic events over and over again around the clock due to news rebroadcasts and media manipulation by governments and corporations.

            The world has recently witnessed the grief of victims of the mysterious disappearance of Malaysian Airline over the Indian Ocean, the shooting down of a civilian aircraft over war-torn Ukraine, the spread of Ebola in western Africa and demonstrations and militarized police response after the police shooting of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. [1]  These events have been featured in the media against the grim, benumbing background of the everyday horrors in Gaza, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Outside of war zones, neither the very poor nor the very privileged regions of the planet are exempt from the ravages of global warming. We will share the effects of global climate change directly whether we live on the Pacific Rim, Africa, North America, South America, Central Asia, Europe or elsewhere.[2]

        Information technologies have shattered traditional, hierarchical relationships between the powerful and the weak, the younger generations and the old. The ownership and control of knowledge and technological expertise are shared by more people than ever before because of global educational exchange opportunities and the Internet universities. So, too, vast numbers of people are migrating or being dislocated to neighboring nations and distant regions because of regional conflicts, famines, floods, earthquakes, mudslides, sea-level rise, droughts or varieties of human environmental degradation. At the same time, partly due to advances in food production and medicine, the world population is increasing faster than ever, major debilitating diseases are being eradicated or controlled, and longevity has increased dramatically.[3] Some scientists in the wealthier countries envisage an almost unlimited extension of human life.[4] Yet parallel to these futurist hopes, obesity and diabetes, have become widespread and have become serious health issues among the more “developed” or “advanced” classes East and West. [5]

        As isolated people become increasingly exposed to the pain and suffering of others near and far and they seek answers to explain misfortune, many are seeking understanding, consolation and guidance in the ancient Indian Dharma teachings of Buddhism. Unlike popular theistic faiths, Buddhism does not require belief in God or gods, hereditary priests, divinely-inspired scripture or particular allegiance to a troubled, geographic motherland. Its earliest teachings as in the Dharmapada[6] point to the seeker's own mind as the cause of happiness or unhappiness in this life. For many, the Buddhadharma has emerged as a way to analyze, evaluate and more deeply understand the causes of their personal experience of suffering (duḥkha), the First Noble Truth. It is not just a play of philosophical ideas for bemusement in chat rooms: as comprehensive guidance for ethical living, Buddhist teachings and reflections provide an analysis of existential causes and conditions and an empirical, “psychosocial technology” (ethical lifestyle guidelines and practices)- the Eightfold Path to Enlightenment- to help individuals better understand themselves as intentional agents of their “karma” introspectively. Practitioners claim that the process itself is transformative of their “inner world.” Personal insights encourage consequent, wholesome actions (kusala karma) that lead to the elimination (nirodha) of the origin of suffering (“thirst” or “craving”: tṛṣṇā; P. taṇhā), the Second Noble Truth. As the painful trauma of multiple disruptions of “satisfaction” lessen and disappear, contentment and happiness arise accompanied by compassion or more empathy for those around us who are trapped by “greed, hatred and foolishness.”

            According to the senior nun Venerable Adrienne Howley who was both ordained by the Dalai Lama and has the highest ordination vows in the Vietnamese tradition,

            Following the Buddha's way and studying the Dharma...is meant to develop sympathetic understanding, gentleness and the ability to see the reasons for another's behavior. If you did no more than act with real compassion in every situation, you would almost be a Buddha. The sincere practice of universal compassion leads to enlightenment. A mind set on this path seeks to see clearly what needs to be done—or not done—and the best and most compassionate way to go about it. Seeing clearly is the way.

            ---

            Universal compassion means awareness at all times that all sentient beings--- all things that live---experience suffering. Awareness of universal suffering is the first step toward universal compassion.

            Thinking is a very rare activity. Thinking is what the Buddha tried to teach, thinking about existence---not in the manner of worrying and speculating but of being fully aware of the way things have become in any given moment.[7]

The notion of universal compassion applies to all Buddhists- the four-fold sangha of monks and nuns and laymen and lay women- and followers of other traditions and philosophies or no philosophical orientation at all. Everyone can share in the benefits of developing karuṇā, “compassion” (“empathy”). It is the wish that others be free from suffering (duḥkha)[8].

            In the Pāli or Nikāya Buddhism as practiced by contemporary Theravāda Buddhists, compassion (karunā) is traditionally listed as the second of the four brahmavihāra or divine abidings after loving-kindness (maitrī; P. mettā), and preceding empathetic joy (muditā) and equanimity (upekṣā). In a widely observed early Buddhist guided meditation practice, compassionate intentions are systematically applied to one's self, then to widening circles person-to-person, from those closest to the indifferent, then to those hostile to you (“enemies”) and lastly to everyone in the surrounding vicinity, the region, the country, the continent, the  globe and lastly all directions in the cosmos. 

            Karunā was not only considered a focus of meditation but also a call for action. According to Buddhaghosa, whose commentaries are the central authority for the interpretation of the Pāli scriptures in Theravāda Buddhism, analysis of the word “karuṇā” shows that in Pāli Buddhism

the concept of compassion calls for aggressive action for the relief of the suffering of others. When others suffer it makes the heart of good people tremble (kampa), thus it is karuṇā; it demolishes others’ suffering, attacks and banishes it, thus it is karuṇā; or it is dispersed over the suffering, is spread out through pervasion, thus it is karuṇā.[9]

Compassion is widely extended across all planes of existence in the Buddhist cosmos in the exalted Mahāyāna ideal of the bodhisattva who generates bodhicitta, the vow or commitment to achieve buddhahood for the purpose of liberating all beings from suffering (mahākarunā- “great compassion”). We are all familiar with the famous moral exemplar of His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the current exiled 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, who is considered an emanation of the Avalokiteśvara bodhisattva, the “Lord who Looks Down in Empathy”, who responds to the desperate cries of worldly beings and assuages their suffering  as a savior with wisdom and compassion both spiritually and in practical service. His Holiness considers compassion the “supreme emotion”:

...our innate capacity for empathy is the source of the most precious of all human qualities, which we in Tibetan call nying je. Now while generally translated simply as “compassion,” the term nying je has a wealth of meaning that is difficult to convey succinctly, though the ideas it contains are universally understood. It connotes love, affection, kindness, gentleness, generosity of spirit, and warm-heartedness. It is also used as a term of both sympathy and endearment. On the other hand, it does not imply “pity” as the word compassion may. There is no sense of condescension. On the contrary, nying je denotes a feeling of connection with others, reflecting its origin in empathy,...a combination of empathy and reason.. when we act out of concern for others, our behavior towards them is automatically positive...we have no room for suspicion when our hearts are filled with love.[10]

In this paper I will attempt a brief overview of what we may call “compassionate service”  (sometimes “bodhisattva action”) in contemporary Buddhism as practiced “on the ground” in the “real” world as it appears today. Other scholars at our meeting will address the scriptural and theoretical understanding of compassion in Buddhism at greater depth from its birth in pre-literate India to its dissemination beyond the Indian sub-continent over more than two millennia. This paper will also overlap with topics of other Uberoi Experts' Meeting panelists. Some notable Buddhist leaders and organizations motivated by compassion for others choose to concern themselves primarily with broad sociopolitical issues of violence, conflicts, war and worrisome environmental challenges affecting our complex, interdependent planet. This modern Buddhist movement is collectively called “socially engaged Buddhism” in the West. (See Christopher S. Queen, “Introduction: A New Buddhism” in Engaged Buddhism in the online Academic Room (2005).

Socially Engaged Buddhism, At Home and Afar

The term “socially engaged Buddhism” is attributed to the renowned Vietnamese peace activist and Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh who as a practicing monk during wartime in Vietnam was impelled to serve his bloodied and suffering country men and women in the battlefield firsthand rather than simply praying for them in a temple. As charismatic speakers and gifted and prolific writers, the Dalai Lama Thich Nhat Hanh, Sulak Sivaraksa, A. T. Ariyaratne and other talented leaders have brought socially engaged Buddhism as “love in action”  wider public recognition as an activist faith throughout the world. Buddhist sensitivity to others’ suffering (compassion), however, is not just for people experiencing violence, human rights violations and sexual degradation in distant places, it begins with oneself at home with those near to you. According to Kenneth Kraft,[11] “For Thich Nhat Hanh, engaged Buddhism encompasses meditation, mindfulness in daily life, involvement in one's family, and political responsiveness.” Echoing Buddhist critics of the phrase “socially engaged”, the Zen monk “at times even dismisses the term he coined as a misnomer: 'Engaged Buddhism is just Buddhism. If you practice Buddhism in your family, in society, it is engaged Buddhism.'”[12] Of relevance to our theme of compassion and service in Buddhism, I must add another quote from the revered Vietnamese sage:

We talk about social service, service to humanity, service for others who are far away, helping to bring peace to the world---but we often forget that it is the very people around us that we must live for first of all. If you cannot serve your wife or husband or child or parent---how are you going to serve society?[13]

Another senior monk from Vietnam, Australia-based Venerable Thich Quang Ba emphasized the inherently "engaged" nature of Buddhism from its inception in India. He noted that:

(1) The place of "interdependence" (paṭicca samuppāda- the “conditionality of all physical and psychical phenomena”) in Buddhist philosophy predisposes Buddhism to social engagement; (2) In the Buddha's lifetime, very few bhikkhus asked for or were granted permission to live solitary lives of practice. His followers were deeply engaged in work at the village level (3) We are constantly being engaged by life. It is extremely difficult to be disengaged from life. It is how we engage life as Buddhists that matters; (4) The (historic) Golden Ages of Buddhism in India, China and Vietnam provide significant examples of socially engaged Buddhism. The term may provide an emphasis in practice which is appealing to Westerners but it is not a new form of Buddhism.[14]

The historical Buddha's forty-five year teaching career in India was a mission of direct compassionate service to the people of his time, extending to animals as well (all sentient beings). Buddha taught “compassionately engaged Dharma” for all. Legend goes that he was driven by a profound compassion he felt for their suffering as beings subject to the inescapable existential reality of impermanence (P. anicca), specifically the experience of painful gestation and birth into the world from the womb, the discomforts and anxieties of the stages of maturation leading to inevitable illnesses, disabilities, decrepitude and inexorable death.  He taught that individuals must rely on their own ethical actions and insights into their own patterns of thinking in order to achieve liberation from the karmic bonds of their circumstances without relying on gods, incontestable divine scriptures, public opinion, traditional blood sacrifices or a hereditary priestly caste.

            From what can be surmised from the voluminous legends, stories and teachings that have been passed down to us, the Buddha was a brilliant and well-seasoned yogi who was also compassionately attuned to society around him, Though born in a ruling family of wealth and provided the education of a future king, he left his worldly good fortune behind for the life of an ascetic. He became a leader of a voluntary association (sangha) of homeless mendicants who were dependent on a hospitable local populace for sustenance in exchange for teachings. His single-minded purpose was guiding all individuals within the tribes and castes of the warring society of his time (~2300-2600 BCE) toward personal, inner spiritual cultivation and outer, socially-responsible, ethical behavior. In short, his primary guiding platform was adumbrations of the Middle Way of the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold Path for forty-five years. This deeper insight into “the existential present”-the results of previous actions (karma vipāka) - and his positive teachings of ethical,  “mindful” living for householders and the ordained sangha focused on inner freedom and harmonious social interactions. __

            According to Professor Achariya Vijaya Samarawickrama, the former Director of Nalanda Institute in Selangor, Malaysia (bold text my own):   

When we reflect on the lives of the Buddha both in his long career as a Bodhisatta as well as the Enlightened One, the unique characteristic that stands out is his selfless service to all beings. In the very first story which marks his career as a Buddha-to-be until his last life as King Vessantara (before he was born as Prince Siddhartha), he gave away all his possessions for the benefit of others. Even as a Buddha his primary concern was to bring to humanity the ultimate bliss of Nibbāna.

            The Buddha gained nothing personally by serving others, but he did it out of his deep compassion and his determination to end the suffering of all beings. Therefore we can say that if we want to follow in the footsteps of the Buddha, then we must selflessly serve all those who share this planet with us out of love and compassion. In this service we leave out no one: the long, the short, and the middling, the seen and the unseen, the strong and the weak. There is none whom we cannot serve.[15]

Achariya Samarawickrama's call for a Buddhism of selfless service is directly contrary to untutored, common opinion that Buddhism is a kind of passive, navel-gazing faith for self-absorbed narcissists or those who have been wounded in love. Quite the opposite he avers, “if one wants to be a Buddhist then one must begin by serving others to reduce and finally eliminate the illusion that one has a permanent self, which is why we call it selfless service”. Although a teacher of Theravada Buddhism for primarily English-speaking Sri Lankan and overseas Chinese in Malaysia, he exalts the Mahayana ideal of the bodhisattva using the Pāli term bodhisatta rather than Sanskrit terminology, “A Buddhist is one who, while actively working to purify his or her own mind, also ceaselessly works for the welfare of others, to reduce suffering at all costs. This noble aspiration is embodied in the Bodhisatta ideal in which the disciple vows to serve others while at the same time working towards self- perfection. One cannot call oneself a Buddhist without actively working to relieve the suffering of others.”[16]

            The vow to “serve others while at the same time working toward self- liberation” is reminiscent of a phrase I heard frequently in South Korea during my years living there and studying Buddhism academically and practicing with the gray-robed ordained sangha: sang gu bori, ha hwa jungsaeng, “Seek to awaken (attain Buddhahood), save all sentient beings”: 上求菩提下化衆生 (literally, “seek enlightenment above, transform sentient beings below”).17 Like the Taoist yin yang symbol of interlocking but inseparable black and white halves forming a full circle, inner spiritual cultivation and outer  service for others form an integral and balanced whole. Within communities of meditators there must exist individuals that serve them and take care of daily business. Those who serve others selflessly must continually fortify themselves with personal spiritual practice and periods of repose to be effective.  The circle is not static but in motion,  more of a turning Dharma wheel or spinning top, sometimes tottering more in one direction than the other, rectifying itself and eventually finding proper balance after rotating from one extreme to the other like a compass settling on the true north direction.

One of the guideposts of the socially engaged Buddhist charity Buddhist Global Relief (BGR) founded by the senior American monk Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi is inward “self-cultivation”. The BGR statement of its Core Values is very clear about its balanced inner and outer perspective:

Self-cultivation: We recognize that our outward-directed relief work must be accompanied by an inward effort to purify the mind of greed, hatred, and delusion—the root causes of personal and collective suffering. We try to integrate our relief work with our self-cultivation, so that the outer work becomes a means of self-purification and inward self-cultivation strengthens us to accomplish our mission more effectively.[17]

In his inspiring essay to goad Western Buddhists to become more active to decrease suffering around the world,  Socially Engaged Buddhism Today: A Challenge to Buddhists (2007), Bhikkhu Bodhi addressed the “inner-outer focus” polarity in much of the Buddhist world.

It is true that Buddhist meditation practice requires seclusion and inwardly focused depth. But wouldn’t the embodiment of dharma in the world be more complete by also reaching out and addressing the grinding miseries that are ailing humanity?

I know we engage in lofty meditations on kindness and compassion and espouse beautiful ideals of love and peace. But note that we pursue them largely as inward, subjective experiences geared toward personal transformation. Too seldom does this type of compassion roll up its sleeves and step into the field. Too rarely does it translate into pragmatic programs of effective action realistically designed to diminish the actual sufferings of those battered by natural calamities or societal deprivation.

Buddhist teachers often say that the most effective way we can help protect the world is by purifying our own minds, or that before we engage in compassionate action we must attain realization of selflessness or emptiness. There may be some truth in such statements, but I think it is a partial truth. In these critical times, we also have an obligation to aid those immersed in the world who live on the brink of destitution and despair. The Buddha’s mission, the reason for his arising in the world, was to free beings from suffering by uprooting the evil roots of greed, hatred, and delusion. These sinister roots don’t exist only in our own minds. Today they have acquired a collective dimension and have spread out over whole countries and continents. To help free beings from suffering today therefore requires that we counter the systemic embodiments of greed, hatred, and delusion.[18]

Bhikkhu Bodhi concludes his rallying cry to modern Western Buddhist converts with:

In each historical period, the dharma finds new means to unfold its potentials in ways precisely linked to that era’s distinctive historical conditions. I believe that our own era provides the appropriate historical stage for the transcendent truth of the dharma to bend back upon the world and engage human suffering at multiple levels—even the lowest, harshest, and most degrading levels—not in mere contemplation but in effective, relief-granting action illuminated by its own world-transcending goal.

The special challenge facing Buddhism in our age is to stand up as an advocate for justice in the world, a voice of conscience for those victims of social, economic, and political injustice who cannot stand up and speak for themselves. This, in my view, is a deeply moral challenge marking a watershed in the modern expression of Buddhism. I believe it also points in a direction that Buddhism should take if it is to share in the Buddha’s ongoing mission to humanity.[19]

In quick response to Venerable Bodhi’s call in Buddhadharma magazine’s 2007 editorial essay quoted above, several of his students decided to form a Buddhist relief organization dedicated to alleviating the suffering of the poor and disadvantaged in the developing world afflicted by hunger and poor agricultural productivity. Cooperating with other Buddhist groups in the greater New York area before long, Buddhist Global Relief emerged as an “inter-denominational” organization comprising people of different Buddhist groups who share the vision of a Buddhism actively committed to the task of alleviating social and economic suffering. The BGR stated service mission is clear: to sponsor projects that promote hunger relief for poor communities around the world by:

1)      providing direct food aid to people afflicted by hunger and malnutrition

2)      helping develop better long-term methods of sustainable food production and management appropriate to the cultures and traditions of the beneficiaries

3)      promoting the education of girls and women, so essential in the struggle against poverty and malnutrition

4)      giving women an opportunity to start right livelihood projects to support their families.[20]

In the Anguttara Nikaya 5:37 “In giving food, one gives five things to the recipients: one gives life, beauty, happiness, strength, and mental clarity.  In giving these five things, one in turn partakes of life, beauty, happiness, strength, and mental clarity, whether in this world or in the heavenly realm.”

From Santa Clara County in California, New York City, Detroit, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Rwanda and Malawi, India, Haiti, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, China, Cambodia and Bangladesh, Buddhist Global Relief supports direct food aid and educational right livelihood projects, as a 100% volunteer-only organization with about 90% direct program costs in service to international projects  and less than 4% for administrative overhead! Few charities can boast such figures![21]

It is no surprise that the energy that drives the volunteer effort of Buddhist Global Relief is the emotion of compassion for it is compassion “that makes the hearts of the good tremble with the suffering of others.” This thoughtful sentiment is what enables humans to escape the “cocoon of self-centeredness” and awaken a universal consciousness. Like Avalokiteśvara, compassion opens us to the anguished cries of misery rising up from countless living beings that live in despair. Compassion moves us to dispel their suffering and secure their well-being and happiness. As for the value of service, to follow the call of compassion is to enter into service to others, and to find in service a source of strength, power, and joy that far surpasses the superficial satisfaction gained from self-centered projects aimed at domination and exploitation”[22]

The many service projects of Buddhist Global Relief require substantial funding. Many charities in the United States hire costly public relations and fund-raising agencies to acquire donations for their work. BGR keeps its fund-raising campaign costs very low because its members are generous. They also voluntarily organize fund raising events and activities to inform the general public about BGR’s good works and solicit donations. BGR’s Walks to Feed the Hungry have been very successful in boasting the morale of participants and in raising dāna- spiritual gifts (funds or in-kind donations) for BGR projects. Dāna pāramitā is the Perfection in Giving” or “Liberality”. It is the first practice or quality -alms-giving- that when developed purportedly leads to Buddhahood as illustrated in many of the former birth stories of the Buddha. The BGR website, presumably composed by Bhikkhu Bodhi, is eloquent when discussing this virtue. Better to let him speak (and teach) for the organization!

The most tangible expression of our sense of human solidarity is the act of giving. Through giving, we break down the psychological barriers that separate us from others and affirm our fundamental unity. Through giving, we let the water of compassion flow through our own hearts and into the hearts of others. The practice of generosity ennobles and dignifies our character; at the same time, it helps those in need find a base of security that will support their efforts to provide for themselves and their families. Most importantly, giving demonstrates to others that they do not walk alone; that there are people far away, never seen by them, who care for them and share their suffering; that there are those who earnestly wish to help.

With such thoughts, we invite everyone who empathizes with our mission to contribute to our work by making a donation. A large number of small gifts can combine to create a mass of funds that can be fruitfully used to aid those in need. The Buddha said that to give food is to give the recipients life, health, beauty, happiness, and mental clarity. By giving these, the donor in turn acquires a store of merit, of wholesome karma, that will eventually ripen in these five benefits.[23]

A BGR Walk to Feed the Hungry took place in west central Florida in March this year. It was the first of its kind in the area and was very successful despite the small and disparate Buddhist convert population in the Tampa Bay area where I reside. About thirty Americans, led by two young Sri Lankan bhikkhus of the Mahamevnawa Meditation Center, joined the Walk one beautiful spring morning and raised just under $3000; not bad for the first event of an unknown charity in a conservative Christian community! Ven. Bodhi was ill and could not attend the Florida Walk but he sent a message of gratitude that was read to the gathering. According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, the Walk inspires such a generous response because it

…evokes the deep seed of goodness always present in the human heart, and it does this through BGR’s mission: to help disadvantaged communities around the world escape the trap of chronic hunger and malnutrition... We help people at the grassroots develop small-scale ecologically sustainable agricultural projects, with emphasis on making them independent and self-sustaining. We help girls and poor students attend school.. We help women start small cottage industries or learn better methods of crop cultivation to feed their families and sell surplus on the market…

I feel that the walk not only helps the poor and hungry but it also helps us. For we also suffer from hunger: hunger for a deeper meaning and higher purpose in our lives. Sadly, in today’s materialist culture the market reigns supreme, reducing all other values to naked dollars and cents. Every drop of meaning and purpose is squeezed dry by a worldview that asks us to look at everything in terms of its exchange value. The market has become a despot and his words are really scary…

The quality I believe we need most to push the world in... is what I call “conscientious compassion.” We often think of compassion as a soft and gentle emotion, even a passive one—and a tendency to passivity is indeed a weak spot among us Buddhists. Gentleness and patience are admirable, but the kind of compassion we need today has to merge the softness of the meditative mind with courage and conviction and even fierceness. It must be driven by a fervent sense of conscience, by an urge to bring the imperatives of moral insight down into the real world. This is a compassion actively committed to promoting justice in the world, at multiple levels: social justice, economic justice, political justice, and legal justice. It must move us to redeem people from misery and help them rediscover their own inner dignity.[24]

Bhikkhu Bodhi’s call for a dynamic “conscientious compassion” to strive for social, economic, political and legal justice in society is an appeal for Buddhists to integrate with the non-Buddhist world. A sense of what is just and unjust is widely shared by people of different backgrounds and religions. It is inevitable that as Buddhists in the West act more prominently as reputable public charities and reveal a “a new social face”[25] that is demonstrably concerned for others, they will be recognized and become more influential. They will be closer to keeping the “bodhisattva vow” of saving all beings. One wonders when the term “bodhisattva” will enter common vocabulary like “Zen”, “karma”, “nirvana” and ‘guru”. It will take time to shake the self-absorbed stereotype the “hirsute guru dwelling in a mountaintop cave” especially in locales where Buddhists are few and opposition to foreign faiths strong but there will be gradual but steady improvement if media accounts remain favorable. 

It may be difficult in the beginning for Euro-American Buddhists to find their voice as a mass movement. Venerable Bodhi’s call however, is a call to the individual, to follow their own “fervent sense of conscience and the imperatives of moral insight down into the real world...to merge the softness of the meditative mind with courage and conviction and even fierceness”. Failure to express public confidence in Buddhist teachings by remaining passive when other religions or ideologies dominate all social institutions is failure to be true to the teachings and Buddha’s example of life-long, generous service to all beings

Google searches for the phrase “socially engaged Buddhism” brings up 285,000 results or the phrase “compassion and Buddhism” 1,190,000 results, and “community service and Buddhism” about 2,930,000 results at the end of August 2014. Notwithstanding many repetitive entries and faulty robotic-generated links, these results are a virtual cornucopia of delights for the activist-scholar but impossible to summarize or do justice to the many dedicated individuals and organizations that are listed on-line, not to mention the people and groups who are not represented in cyber-space (in English only!). To pre-emptively fend off the trauma of intellectual paralysis of not knowing where to begin or how to sort out this avalanche of information, I will attempt to outline my own modest experience in “Buddhist compassionate service” with reference to other good folk whom I have had the good fortune to have encountered over years in Asia where I have lived and visited and the state of Florida in the United States since 2001.

In the brief bio I submitted to the Uberoi Foundation, I called myself a “socially-engaged participant/observer of Buddhism”. Spiritual unease at home on Long Island, New York, led to some years seeking wisdom vicariously in academic religious studies and anthropology in the US and Britain. I eventually pursued Buddhist studies at an advanced level in South Korea, with many research and study trips to other parts of Asia and a few lecture tours. I have met and studied with a number of great teachers over the years but I have been a mediocre student to them all. What little I have learned about religious transformation and the Buddhadharma I have had the temerity to share teaching and mentoring  in a wide variety of settings, including universities, churches, retirement homes, trailer parks, jails, prisons, hospitals, hospices, the streets and animal refuges.

TALES FROM TWO PENINSULAS

South Korea

I may be the first Western Buddhist to study and write about death and dying formally in South Korea although it was not my intention when I first went to Korea as a Peace Corps volunteer on leave from a doctoral program in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1980. As a Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) control worker working out of a rural public health clinic, I had occasion to learn first-hand about stigmatized populations, trauma and depression, emergency medical relief, chronic disease care and end-of-life concerns in a rapidly developing country. I documented a traditional Korean funeral service and burial of a middle-aged man, a beloved husband and father. I shared in the grief of the family and village[26]and my heart broke open to the culture. This experience led me to explore more deeply how death in all its varieties across the population is handled in a traditional Confucian-Buddhist-shamanist culture with recent widespread conversion to Christianity.

I learned about the severe oppression of the Korean people during the bitter thirty-five year Japanese colonial period (1910-1945) during which provincial crematoria were erected for the disposal of the dead. This abrupt superimposed foreign cultural innovation disrupted traditional Confucian burial practice and prolonged mourning rituals. I also vicariously experienced the suffering of the Korean people during the Korean civil war decades before when millions died and streets were said to become rivers of blood. One of my Peace Corps colleagues had been a U.S. Marine during the war and he vividly described what the intense fighting was like with deep chagrin. Certain parts of Seoul where the fighting was fiercest were to become slums (“moon villages”) for the poorest citizens because they were thought (and sensed) to be inhabited by sad and angry ghosts. I had to pass through one of these infamous neighborhoods within the decade after my Peace Corps stint to visit Buddhist temples where I lived, practiced, studied and raised a family. I learned about Korean Buddhist attitudes toward death and funeral rituals and prayers “on the ground” as it were. Little did I know that this experience would prepare me to render Buddhist “compassionate service” during later years in Korea

When I was considering death and dying as a general area for doctoral dissertation research at Dongguk University, Korea’s largest Buddhist university, “death found me”, or should I say, an uncanny number of friends, colleagues and acquaintances began to die around me for unrelated reasons. Inoperable and undiagnosed sudden onset liver disease in a young mother of two (a friend’s dear wife), a tragic unexplained accident or possible suicide of a happy new father on an overseas business trip (a friend a close colleague at UNESCO), the death of a great Buddhist scholar and mentor in his prime, a university colleague in his 30s who studied at both UC Berkeley and U Penn when I was there, the self-immolation of a monk protesting the national financial crisis et al.  These unhappy events actually obliged me to attend Korean funerals and customary family gatherings and “just be there” as a compassionate listener, very rare foreign presence in a thoroughly Korean environment.

When someone dies in traditional Korea, the family usually cares for the body, arranges for the viewing of the funerary tablet that sits before the closed casket, and attends to the burial or cremation. Those in mourning are very rarely left alone. Family members and friends, if they can, drop everything and join the bereaved twenty-four hours a day for at least three days. In the cases of my colleagues, all office work but the most pressing stopped.  Everyone went to be with the aggrieved wife, husband or parents, sleeping on cardboard in basements or garages to always be nearby if there was no room at the residence of the deceased. Like funerals in other cultures, a makeshift banquet of delicious food is voluntarily offered, lots of drinking, lots of reminiscing about the dead, laughing and crying. Compassionate concern or fear may arise to prevent suicide of the young bereaved. This is not so uncommon in Korea which has the highest suicide rate in the world. For Buddhists I would attend the traditional devotional services every seven days until the culminating forty-ninth day temple service. This ceremony could be very long, elaborate and expensive with the offerings of dāna to the officiating monks and nuns and specially printed books like the Diamond Sūtra to participating laity.

My uncommon exposure to the rituals associated with dying and death in Korea as a non-medically trained foreigner who was not a Christian missionary in a way prepared me for voluntary compassionate response with bereaved families when two terrible tragedies with multiple deaths occurred in Seoul.   One of the many bridges across the Han River in Seoul collapsed into the water early one rush hour morning in the fall of 1994. Thirty-two people died including many children on a bus going to school.[27] The abbot of the main Jogye Order headquarters temple in Seoul, Jogyesa, responded to his congregants immediately and prepared the main Dharma Hall for a collective funeral service for the victims. I was able to visit the temple to observe how the four-fold sangha served the victims’ families. I was told that just by being there (as the sole Caucasian) and chanting and prostrating with the hundreds of other mourners gave the Korean Buddhist attendees consolation and rare encouragement. Perhaps a white Buddhist was a fortunate omen? 

Eight months later a much more terrible accident occurred, the infamous Sampoong Department Store collapse during a very busy late afternoon shopping hour. Five hundred and two people died and over nine hundred were injured. This accident was a national tragedy and disgrace since it exposed dishonesty, a lack of adherence to safety standards, bribery at many levels, disregard for human life in pursuit of profit and general criminal negligence.[28] This was the largest peacetime disaster in Korean history. Local hospitals were overwhelmed by the dead bodies and injured that were immediately found. The accident site was huge, complicated and dangerous and victims were continually being retrieved even seventeen days after the collapse. Families and friends rushed to the site to reach their loved ones but had to be held back from entering the wreckage by police because of the danger and total confusion. A nearby university auditorium became a large waiting hall for the missing victims’ families as the casualties were slowly discovered in the rubble.

Identifying the dead was challenging because of the devastative power of the massive collapse and the very hot weather.  I joined a team of Jogye Order volunteers to do what I could to help the thousands of distraught, traumatized family members over the weeks. There was great chaos but the compassionate response of the public was also amazing. Many generous offers to the victims’ families were made such as covering all funeral expenses, Cadillac limousine hearse service (a first in Korea!), hometown transportation costs, etc. Demonstrators also demanded justice from officialdom. Visitors to the family refuge site had to be reminded to register and provide names, photos and descriptions of the clothing the presumed victims were wearing at the time of the accident. Hundreds of albums of photos of articles found in the rubble had to be compiled and passed around the auditorium so that family members could identify them accurately if possible. Buddhists constructed makeshift funeral altars outside the auditorium so that mourners and the desperate hopeful could pray. Religious volunteers, individually, in partners or small groups sat with the bereaved to offer comfort, distribute water bottles, coffee, food, towels, clothing, pillows to enhance rest and sleeping and run errands for the elderly and the lost. Chair massage and hand acupressure/acupuncture to elevate mood as freely given. Many volunteers and rescue workers worked around the clock as did the media and clergy serving the distressed families.

Like with the recent Saewol-ho Ferry sinking that put the nation in mourning, Korea and especially Seoul residents went into a sullen period of deep, self-reflective rumination attempting to determine what could have caused this unexpected misfortune to so many innocent people. Most of the shoppers who died were rather affluent, too. The department store was a trendy, expensive one and in a ritzy part of Seoul. Why did some survive and others die? Even now, almost twenty years afterwards, it is a hard subject to discuss with many of those who remember it. Undigested grief accumulates and many people customarily drink alcohol to self-medicate. “Compassion fatigue” affected thousands and many simply blocked off thinking or speaking about the tragedy.

Disturbed and Disturbing  Spirits, Living and Dead

I was working on a doctoral thesis concerning the high rate of abortion among Korean Buddhist women at the time of the Sampoong Department Store collapse in late June, 1995. Dread of misfortune was common in the literature, popular media and interviews with clergy who provided religious services for women who had many abortions. Women and sometimes men who were responsible for the aborted child would report nightmares, premonitions and uncanny occurrences. Sometimes shamans who communicated with the dead reported that the spirits of the aborted babies were greatly distressed and screaming. These disembodied spirits or fragments of floating consciousness were in frightful, searing pain in the “between” state or some “pre-birth bardo” because they were physically and emotionally traumatized by being deprived of their rightful human birth against their will. These spirits would rub against the living in strange ways at inopportune times to get the attention of their mothers or fathers. Their spiritual interference to gain attention caused misfortunes such as accidents, business failures and bankruptcies, marital discord and divorce, failure to pass university entrance exams or get into a desirable school, inexplicable untreatable illnesses and wounds that did not heal among other troubles in general. Sometimes fearsome otherworldly auditory and visual visitations or hallucinations were reported. Even scientifically-minded or so-called rational university students, Christians, too, opined that the millions of unhappy spirits of aborted fetuses may have caused the terrible accidents the nation was subject to. This was a prevalent opinion back in the 1990s.

Abortions in Korea were very common during the country’s intense industrial development phase that began in the 1970s. They were practically considered good female hygiene or “cleansing”; especially if the baby was female. The country was became urbanized very rapidly and the rural agricultural way of life was all but abandoned. Rice paddies near urban centers could be sold for huge profit and shrewd families became rich overnight. The traditional large family of parents and six children was expensive to maintain in cities, affordable apartments in housing blocks were small and inconvenient and young children were a burden to men and women who had to work long hours, sometimes seven days a week, to get the much vaunted “good things” in life. Educating children well became very expensive, too. Better to spend more on one or two kids rather than many. Lacking effective forms of birth control in a male-dominated conservative Confucian society, women were pressured into or chose to have abortions. Up-to-date, medically advanced and cheap abortions were and remain a quick and easy family planning method in Korea. Abortion clinics remain common even though the procedure is technically illegal. The annual abortion rate was as high in Korea as in United States with a population of about a fourth, around two million per year. Women who had three to six abortions or more were not uncommon during the period of my research.

Although abortion is clearly a violation of the first Buddhist precept of non-killing in the scriptures, an abortion survey conducted by the Korean Institute of Criminology in 1990 found that Buddhists had as high or higher an abortion rate as the rest of the population (in the Seoul sample survey) and that the highest number of repetitive abortions (three or more) were among Buddhists. Among these Buddhists a rapidly growing number began expressing their unease and guilt about their abortions and sought out Buddhist clergy to perform special purification and belated funeral ceremonies for the babies whose lives they felt they had discarded. They sought forgiveness from the children they had intentionally killed. Besides mail correspondence, personal consultations and telephone counseling, certain monks and nuns created lengthy “auspicious rebirth ceremonies” (nak t’ae-a ch’eondo-jae) to assuage the deceased fetuses and provide relief for the worried mothers. I participated and observed many of these services as part of my dissertation research. These rituals entailed honoring the dead over forty-nine days with about three hours of traditional chanting, thousands of prostrations, quiet meditation and personal prayer, offerings of baby foods and treats on the altar and attending dharma talks that were like classes on the afterlife, female biology, pregnancy, gestation and observance of precepts with periods spent for discussion, ventilating anger and grief. Some monks and nuns required ceremony sponsors to perform volunteer work at orphanages and childcare centers to aid children in general.[29]

The senior biguni (P. bhikkhunī) Venerable Seongdeok who initiated the compassionate service Buddhist Volunteer Association (Bulgyo jawonbongsa yeonhaphoe) also pioneered the Buddhist Fetal Life Protection campaign to educate the Buddhist public about the value of life and “our rare opportunity as humans to attain enlightenment and render compassionate service to others”. The Korean Buddhist Volunteer Association applies the bodhisattva “spirit of compassion at the grassroots level. BVA has reinforced the presence of Buddhist sensibilities in Korea by initiating free hospice volunteer and funeral ritual education courses, home caretaker training programs, soup kitchens, clothes distribution drives for the poor and elderly and wild animal feeding and reforestation projects during times of extreme weather and forest fires.[30]

No sooner had I finished writing my doctoral dissertation at Dongguk University than very late in the evening in the spring of 1996 three ancient Buddhist temples within pleasant walking from my home on the northern boundary of Seoul exploded in flames. Because the fires all broke out within minutes of one another and the temples were difficult to access down unpaved roads leading into the forested hills,  fire trucks arrived too late to save all the wooden buildings. Residents of the temples themselves and their few neighbors had to do most of the firefighting. Ornately painted dharma halls were thickly covered in soot, bell towers and the instruments were destroyed and in one temple nearest my home, a beautiful wooden shrine housing five hundred intricately hand-carved wooden statues of the early arhats were incinerated. Other buildings were severely damaged. What happened?

To make a long story short, upon investigation police confirmed what the general public suspected, that extremist and/or mentally unbalanced “Christians” were responsible for the attacks. The temples had been leafleted with hellfire and damnation; Biblical tracts decrying idolatry and false gods for months earlier. Other Buddhist sites in Seoul and around the country had decades-long histories of Christian-wrought vandalism and desecrations. There were frequent demonstrations in the streets and at temple entrances denouncing Buddhists and other heathens with strident zealotry. Christian ministers were videotaped and filmed by TV crews threatening and encouraging extreme actions against unbelievers. Although provincial temple abbots and Jogye Order headquarters were aware of the violence, very little was done to address the problem. Temples were attacked “in my own backyard” where I had gone on retreats, collected fresh water from mountain springs and where I taught our young daughter to bow to Buddha. I was “fired up”! The doctoral thesis now out of the way, I threw myself into the task to see what could be done to bring a peaceful resolution to this one-way conflict. First I needed to do some background research.

There is no record of Buddhists retaliating against Christian aggression in Korea. It turned out that neither the ordained clergy nor the lay congregation publically exposed the violations of their temples’ sanctity. They left responsibility for identifying the perpetrators up to the police. I was told repeatedly that Buddhists were afraid of the power and influence of Christians in Korea and did not want to make protests of any kind that might lead to unforeseen repercussions. I interviewed prominent Christian leaders who decried the arsonists as crazed extremists who did not act in the spirit of Christ. However, they did not want to make waves either. They took no responsibility for brethren of other denominations or independent mavericks. The abbots of the temples that were attacked in my area did join together to commiserate with one another and hold services extending loving-kindness, compassion and forgiveness to the stealthy arsonists and their supporters. Many of the lay people were angry and wanted some sort of revenge but the monks were able to diffuse their wrath with admonitions against ill will and negative actions. Rather the four-fold sangha became inspired to do more ardent fundraising and rebuild their edifices as quickly as possible almost to spite the aggressors. They were quite successful renovating the old buildings but using concrete and steel rather than combustible wood. Some buildings and Dharma Halls still have residue of the smoke and soot eighteen years later.

Goaded on by the late Professor David Chappell of the Society of Buddhist Christian Studies, I wrote up my findings in an academic article for the association’s journal[31] and organized a panel of important Korean Buddhist clergy and Korean theologians for the upcoming Chicago conference to discuss inter-religious tension and harmony in Korea. Approached by English language and European news stringers in Seoul and the Internet, violent Christian aggression against Buddhism in Korea became international news. Learning about bad press overseas in the U.S., Australia, Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland including the World Council of Churches and all of Asia the Korean national Ministry of Culture sponsored meetings of Buddhist and Christian leaders to bring about some sort of amicable rapprochement. Social pressure seemed to still the actions of the extremists by embarrassing elders of the churches. Buddhist leaders were unimpressed by Christian lip service, though, and except for some joint concerts by Catholic and Buddhist nuns including Won Buddhists and temple visits by very liberal graduate theology classes to learn Seon (Zen) meditation, there is little mutual spiritual growth between most Christians and Buddhists in Korea. I felt I had to do something to ameliorate religious relations in Korea. Many Koreans thanked me for my voluntary efforts that seemed to lessen some angst among temple dwellers and lovers of traditional Korean arts and architecture. Nevertheless trouble-making Biblical literalists remain unpredictable. Random attacks on Buddhist temples in Korea continue today. It is not enough that Buddhists continue to live in fear of attacks, burying their heads in the sand, praying and hoping for the best, forgiving their tormentors. They must act. They have to engage the perpetrators or their controllers vigorously by means of continuous communication, break down walls of suspicion, changing minds and changing society.

Florida                                                                                                                                                         

Distressing calls from my mother in Florida became more and more dire at the end of 2000. In her eighties, she lived alone since my father’s death on their forty-third anniversary in 1988. As the eldest child and only son, my wife and I decided that I must heed the call of filial piety and love for my mother and return to my parents’ home to live, by mid-summer 2001. I had lived overseas fifteen years by then, pilgrimaged a bit in India and elsewhere, finally earned a Ph.D., become a Buddhist teacher, earned some notoriety for engaged Buddhist publications, married a great Korean woman, became a father. Enough. Now be a son.

 Around the world, mention of the American state of Florida often conjures up images of a relaxed, tropical vacation land of sunshine and sandy beaches, Mickey Mouse at Orlando’s Disney World or perhaps the romance and glamour of Miami. Yet amidst the vacationers, aging retirees, mosquitoes and alligators are pockets of sincere Dharma practitioners from the major traditions of Buddhism. Immigrant communities from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Thailand have established their respective temples all over the state. Immigrants from Taiwan, Korea and Japan are smaller in number, their congregations small and consequently their temples very few.[32] Most ethnic groups have a resident monk or nun or two to provide teaching. While American converts to Buddhism are small in number and widespread throughout the state, in the last two decades they have become very active and have established Theravada, Zen, Tibetan Vajrayana and mindfulness (vipassanā) centers in most population centers. The foci of these centers are beginning meditation and basic teachings befitting newcomers to Buddhadharma. Membership is small and transient and financing activities is a constant challenge. Except for the Japanese-led Nichiren sect Soka Gakkai (SGI)[33], white Caucasians dominate most convert groups of all traditions. Unlike the culturally rich temple life of ethnic groups that follow traditional Buddhist calendrical rituals from their native countries, convert American Buddhists have a short Buddhist history, and few emotional associations with Buddhist holiday activities that include their entire families. Rarely do American Buddhist parents and their children engage in Buddhist practice or simple family fun together.[34]

Karma being what it is, there are few Koreans in Pinellas County, a peninsula within a peninsula, and those few are strong Christians or indifferent to Buddhism. The one Korean temple in Florida is a five-hour drive away. Among the handful of Korean Buddhists in the next county across the Tampa Bay was one devout and knowledgeable bosallim (Korean Buddhist female devotee) who we knew for a short while before I performed her funeral service. As a consequence of abruptly relocating from a land where I was practically a full-time lay Buddhist social advocate to an anonymous mother’s son in a very strange land, conservative Christian Florida, I was in culture re-entry shock. It has taken time to find my bearings and feet in Buddhist activism again. I had to make my way amongst strangers without a supportive sangha at first. I took refuge with the Unitarian Universalists. They are well-educated, charming conversationalists, very socially responsible, environmentally conscious, accept everyone, tolerate Buddhists. The coffee was good I formed a branch of the UU Buddhist Fellowship, wrote for its national newsletter, led a sixteen-week course to discuss the Dalai Lama’s brilliant Ethics for the New Millennium using the Dalai Lama Foundation Guidebook and gave to many UU causes.

The challenge of obtaining “right livelihood” in Florida as a vicarious “social drop-in” from Korea has allowed me freedom to pursue engaged Buddhist work and compassionate service. I often remember my recently deceased Ph.D. advisor and founder of the first Korean lay Buddhist Dhamma Teachers’ Association who stressed “bosal haeng” above all- “bodhisattva action” meaning service to all beings. He had faith in this old hippie, socially engaged, American Buddhist ethical anthro-Dharmologist when other faculty members rolled their scholarly eyes. The Dharma wheel turns in the academy and out.

 Identifying myself as a Buddhist in Florida has often been to my advantage as a volunteer chaplain in hospices and hospitals, prisons and the regional Tampa International Airport. Oddity sometimes has advantages if you can roll with it. Most local residents are surprised to meet a white, Italian American, New York-accented Buddhist in heavily Southern Baptist country and are either incredulous or bemused. Some are rather curious, and barrage me with numerous questions. They are seekers for something meaningful they haven’t found yet in their churches. A few worry about my salvation (Thank you! Om). Some clergy are threatened lest I become too popular with the younger generation that has positive regard for charismatic Buddhists like the Dalai Lama and Richard Gere. Dharma teaching about peace, joy and inner freedom without guilt and damnation has immediate appeal. Buddhism seems fresh and new and it not associated with the sordid financial and sexual scandals of the established churches (yet). This is all good news because the only way Buddhists will be able to integrate with their contemporaries, like Śākyamuni and the early arhats did, is by mingling with common, everyday people and “learning their language”, penetrating their hearts and ultimate concerns. Intelligent rapport and kindly presence usually works, even with hostile folk. I ask myself when I find myself in awkward social situations, with a Robin Williams grin, “What would Buddha do?” or more wittily, “WWSD?”[35]  It does not require a Harvard Law degree to respond with a kind heart and show appreciative interest for others’ cares, concerns and opinions, especially when serving prison populations, the homeless or the dying. But the prestige could have helped me on occasion, as upāyakauśalya, to get things done for the poor disadvantaged more effectively!

Initialing volunteering as a Buddhist chaplain and meditation teacher in the county jail at a female inmate’s request and later in state prisons has been a wonderful and sometimes painful education. There is a rich Buddhist prison literature and some informative websites that do not need review here. Penal institutions are numerous and diverse. Housing convicted criminals, security in prison is the highest priority. The second highest priority is security. Guess what the third priority is? Prisons are hard, authoritarian and cold. Regulations are inflexible and can change inexplicably without notice. Sometimes the salaried prison chaplains and wardens are helpful; often they are not. Although Buddhism and other Indian faiths and practices like yoga were introduced to American prisons decades ago, their acceptance throughout the differing state systems has been uneven and sporadic. The three Florida state prisons I have taught in have had relatively stable inmate sanghas for the last few years thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Southern Palm Zen Center. Inmates are allowed to gather for group study and meditation at least once a week and are usually led by the inmates themselves but monitored by volunteer chaplains who may or may not feel they are adequately trained to teach Buddhism but they have the minimal qualifications to satisfy the state authorities.

I am usually honored as a special teacher when I visit these inmate sanghas. I give very short Dharma talks and leave the floor open for the many questions that always come up. Inmates read a lot of everything and argue among themselves about minutiae of doctrine and practices all the time. Most often I cut through that with emphasis on compassion for themselves and others, selfless service in mind and action and self-forgiveness. My meditations are often on visualizing themselves as beings with dignity and inner strength and character. Inmates who have settled into or accepted their identities or routines as prisoners- “long-timers”- crave self-respect and acceptance as good people just serving time away from normal society, paying off their debt for contravening society’s rules, depending on the gravity of their crimes.

County jail is where inmates wait for trial after they have been arrested or wait for sentencing after they have been found guilty in court. Some of the inmates I have met in my local county jail have the most poignant stories. Books could be written about them to do them justice. One Vietnamese Buddhist whom I saw in jail frequently and who became a friend was released after being found “not guilty” of second degree murder after three years of incarceration waiting for a trial by jury. As I got to know him well discussing Buddhism and meditating together, I concluded that he was really innocent, inadvertently caught in a struggle between two Vietnamese gangs. After a year and a half wait, a court date was set. I sat through the trial beside his wife and two very young sons wearing my Buddhist robes in full gaze of the jury. The government brought in many so-called “witnesses” and lots of police testimony but the material evidence was faulty as was the obvious prejudice of the police. Chung’s tiny female Cuban immigrant attorney jumped all over them. The proceedings lasted four days and the sequestered jury argued all night until early morning when they came in with a unanimous decision of “not guilty”. Chung’s mother had flown in from Vietnam for the trial and spoke no English. Because of the trial’s delays she had to fly back to Vietnam just before the trial began. She literally had “sold the farm” or some parcels to pay for her son’s lawyer. Chung’s dutiful wife, a manicurist, had waited three years for this decision and brought their sleeping sons home before her husband stepped out of jail a free man. I met him at the gate. The first thing he did was call his mother in Vietnam collect from an outdoor pay phone on the sidewalk. His possessions bag was mostly full of Buddhist books I gave him over the years and a change of clothes. Before going home to his wife and children, he asked me to drive him to the nearest Vietnamese Buddhist temple so he could bow to the Buddha and then cross the street so he could bow to a huge crucifix in front of the church there. Then we went to his home so he could hold his second son for the first time. The child was born when his father in the local jail a few miles away.

Other tales of Buddhist prisoners are not so happy. Teenage men convicted of second degree and first degree murder, going off to state prison to serve sixteen year sentences or two life terms. One young man had me sit silently on a cold metal seat in the noisy visitor’s cubicle of one wing of the pod so he could chant in Pāli to me as if I were a bhikkhu, or better yet, a Buddha. He had practiced as a novitiate in a Laotian temple for three summers before becoming involved in a drive-by gang killing.

Another teen wanted to learn Buddhadharma and meditation from me so he could teach the Dharma to his mother by mail. He was going away for the rest of his life and wanted to do something good for his mother who lived for her only son. I met with this inmate in the psychiatric ward when he was on suicide watch. He had killed an eighty-four year old man while struggling to steal his cheap old car on a whim.

We are all subject to the First Noble Truth (dukkha) of life- birth, aging, sickness and inevitable death. We all crave (taṇha) satisfaction of our desires and are displeased when we don’t get what we want or experience what we don’t want. We all want to be free or end our suffering (nirodha) and we all can benefit following the guidelines of the Eightfold Path (marga). We have a lot in common with our fellow beings. The Buddha’s fundamental teachings derive from observation of universal human experience and can be acknowledged as true by believers in other faiths, non-believers, atheists and agnostics, anyone subject to the “full catastrophe” of human life, as Kazantzakis says in Zorba the Greek.

There is not one person on the planet who does not have their own full catastrophe... Catastrophe here does not mean disaster. Rather it means the poignant enormity of our life experience. It includes crises and disaster but also all the little things that go wrong and that add up. The phrase reminds us that life is always in flux, that everything we think is permanent is actually only temporary and constantly changing. This includes our ideas, our opinions, our relationships, our jobs, our possessions, our creations, our bodies, everything. [36]

Buddha’s expertise in analyzing dukkha- the “full catastrophe” of human life- leads me to conclude that there are no better places to study and apply the comprehensive “remedy” of the Four Noble Truths than where the transitions of life and death can be observed directly. In the Buddha’s lifetime, the painful transitions of life could be readily observed everywhere outside the “gated community” of his palace grounds. Yet for even closer intimacy with death, early followers of the Awakened One were assigned to sleep and meditate in charnel grounds where bodies could be seen in various stages of decomposition, bloated feasts for scavengers, maggots and worms.

Today most of us experiencing the comforts of developed nations must seek out hospitals and hospices to observe repulsive physical infirmities and inexorable death. Unless you are a medical professional or policeman, or when you yourself or a relative is gravely ill under hospice are, it is a rare to encounter human death except obliquely in the news and entertainment. The dead have become invisible in modern Western society, handled by professionals for a fee. Our dead (perhaps not very beloved!) have become the responsibility and profit of corporate entities. The sights, smells and terrors of animal slaughter for food are hidden away lest people become disgusted of the cruel manner animals are killed for cheap meat and choose to become vegetarian or vegan. Unwanted pet euthanasia, too, is performed in secret but hunting and fishing of innocent sentient beings is glorified as “sport” or “manly”. Of course, fear of death is universal and it is the norm to avoid any encounter with it. More advanced Buddhist practice, however, seeks out death in order to understand impermanence, our close friend anicca- more deeply.[37]

Certain regions of the world and higher social classes remain in relative peace, free from the spectacle of daily violence, starvation and widespread disease. There hospice experience, the propinquity of death and the observation and analysis of emotions associated with our final transition should be part of an educational service for children, even a prerequisite for coming-of-age Three Jewel Refuge ceremony and definitely a requirement for other religious or monastic vows. The boundaries of your heart, your self-obsession, must break open again and again to make space for others’ suffering. Our dharmic service is to be with the dying as a wise, empathic presence. Everyone’s death is your own...It is quite amazing how the generation of  mettā- (loving-kindness) and karunā can, with concentrated attention, transform a dark and fearful deathbed scenario into one of peace, if not, joy.[38]

The last thirty years or so has seen a flowering of Buddhist “compassionate caring work for others” in the West. Besides very active propagation and support of prisoners who show interest in Buddhist meditation and Dharma study, American Buddhist converts have begun to integrate into the mainstream of American life through the establishment of Buddhist chaplaincy training programs and pastoral work. A recent volume on Buddhist chaplaincy and ministry lists thirteen websites of specific training programs for Buddhist chaplains and ministers so that they may satisfy official or stipulated requirements for paid employment in most hospices and medical institutions as well as government positions including prisons and the military.[39]

It is not only in normal deaths but also exceptionally sudden and unexpected end-of-life crises that Buddhists can assist the dying, their families and loved ones. We have witnessed the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Japanese tsunami devastation and Fukushima nuclear radiation debacle and the as yet mysterious disappearance of the Malaysia Air flight 370 with 239 people onboard. The sight of the waiting, bereaved Asian families on CNN-TV raised great pathos across the U.S. I forwarded a Tricycle magazine article about Tzu Chi Buddhist volunteers who travelled to Beijing to console the distraught families with their empathic presence to my Christian chaplain colleagues at the Tampa Airport Interfaith Chaplaincy. It was encouraging to share Christian and Buddhist solidarity in bodhisattva action.[40]

I would like to conclude with an outline of some of the compassionate service activities  initiated by a small Buddhist charity we established in Florida- True Dharma International Buddhist Mission- to encourage other Buddhist organizations in the area by example:

Volunteer on-call hospital and interfaith hospice spiritual support at Suncoast Hospice

Advance Care Planning certification- informed discussion groups

Jail and prison Dharma instruction and guided meditation practice; volunteer chaplaincy.

Correspondence with inmates throughout Florida and around the U.S.

Animal rescue and adoption via SPCA, Humane Society, private parties

Road kill retrieval, burial and blessings; creation of wildlife cemetery

            Cemetery blessed by FPMT Maitreya Project Heart Shrine Relic Tour relic collection

Adopt-A-Mile Keep County Beautiful program- 2 miles of roadside litter cleanup quarterly

Telephone talk line for end-of-life questions

Suicide referrals- networking with suicide prevention organizations and agencies

Ex-inmate social re-entry facilitation

Ex-cult victim counseling and support

Compassion fatigue training and meditation

Free Buddhist books for distribution thanks to FPMT, Corporate Body of the Buddha

            Educational Foundation and others

Networking with ethnic Buddhist groups- Vietnamese, Laotian, Thai, Cambodian, Sri Lanka,

            Taiwanese

Community garden produce distribution to food pantries- Eckerd College student garden

Organic sustainable gardening- free seeds and advice

Vegetarian cooking and education-   Florida Voices for Animals event support

Support of farm animal sanctuaries like Darlynn’s Darlins Rescue Ranch, Polk City, Fl.

Homeless information networking and emergency financial support

Support of Buddhist Peace Fellowship actions protesting military incursions in Iraq, etc.

            Tampa Bay-BPF mailing list

Annual Change Your Mind Day presentations in cooperation with the Tampa Bay Buddhist

            Peace Fellowship

Membership in St. Petersburg Interfaith Clergy Association

Cooperation with Florida Council of Churches

Tampa International Airport Interfaith Chaplaincy

Buddha’s Birthday and Vesak teachings on compassion annually

Organizer of FPMT Heart Shrine Relic Tour, UU Clearwater, Florida 2008

Endnotes

[1] Malaysia Air Flight 370, a Boeing 777, left for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014 and disappeared less than an hour after takeoff  with 239 people on board.  International teams of search and rescue experts had yet to find or identify any wreckage of the plane or any human remains as of September 2014. Malaysia Air Flight 17 over Ukraine. Ebola virus outbreak in west Africa. Demonstrations of outrage over unarmed teenager police killing in Missouri.

[2]  See Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change www.ipcc.ch

[3]  “Although surveys of the health of adults in the developing world carried out in the 1980s suggested that many people between the ages of 20 and 50 were still suffering mainly from diseases of poverty, many countries have now gone through an epidemiological transition such that the global pattern of disease will change dramatically by 2020, with cardiorespiratory disease, depression, and the results of accidents replacing communicable disease as their major health problems.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11740/

[4]  Derek F. Maher, “Response to Aubrey de Grey from the Perspective of Buddhism”, in James W. Haag, G.R. Peterson and M.M.L. Spezio, eds. The Routledge Companion to Religion and Science, 540-548, London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2012.

[5]  “Countries undergoing the epidemiological transition are increasingly caught between the two worlds of malnutrition and infectious disease on the one hand and the diseases of industrial countries, particularly cardiac disease, obesity, and diabetes, on the other. The increasing epidemic of tobacco-related diseases in developing countries exacerbates this problem. The global epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes is a prime example of this problem . An estimated 150 million people are affected with diabetes worldwide, and that number is expected to double by 2025. Furthermore, diabetes is associated with greatly increased risk of cardiovascular disease and hypertension; in some developing countries the rate of stroke is already four to five times that in industrial countries. These frightening figures raise the questions whether, when developing countries have gone through the epidemiological transition, they may face the same pattern of diseases that are affecting industrial countries and whether such diseases may occur much more frequently and be more difficult to control.”  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11740/

[6]  Ch. 1 Twin Verses Yamako Vaggo

        1) All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our                                     thoughts.

            If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that                                 draws the carriage.

                 2) All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our                            thoughts.

                    If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.  

           (Müller, F. Max (1881). The Dhammapada (Sacred Books Of The East, Vol. X). Oxford University Press) 

[7]  Adrienne Howley, The Naked Buddha, (New York: Marlowe & Company, 2002). 70-71.

[8]  Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 2014),  p. 424.

[9] Paradukkhe sati sādhūnan hadayakampanan karoti iti karuṇā; kiṇāti vā paradukkhan, hiṃsati vināseti iti karuṇā; kiriyati vā dukkhiteṣu, pharaṇavasena pasāriyati iti karuṇā.Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosācariya, Harvard Oriental Series, vol. 41, ed. Henry Clarke Warren, revised Dharmananda Kosambi, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950), chapter IX, verse 92,   p. 263, as cited by Stephen Jenkins, “Do Bodhisattvas Relieve Poverty?, in Action Dharma: New Studies in Engaged Buddhism, eds. Christopher S. Queen, Charles Prebish and Damien Keown (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), p.41.

[10]  His Holiness The Dalai Lama,  Ethics for the New Millennium, (New York: Riverhead Books, 1999), pp.74-75.

[11] Kenneth Kraft, ed., Inner Peace, World Peace: Essays on Buddhism and Nonviolence, (Albany: SUNY Press,1992), p.18

[12]  Arnold Kotler, “Breathing and Smiling: Traveling with Thich Nhat Hanh,” BPF Newsletter 11:2 (Summer 1989), 22.

[13]  Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness! (Boston: Beacon Press, 1975), 75.

[14]  Brown, Philip Russell. 2004. “Socially Engaged Buddhism: A Buddhist Practice for the West”. Buddhanet. Accessed from http://www.buddhanetz.org/texte/brown.htm 

[15]  http://nalanda.org.my/e-library/community/communityv2i3/a4.php

[16]  http://nalanda.org.my/e-library/community/communityv2i3/a4.php

17 See http://buddhism-dict.net/cgi-bin/xpr- db.pl?q=%E4%B8%8A%E6%B1%82%E8%8F%A9%E6%8F%90%E4%B8%8B%E5%8C%96%E8%A1%86%E7%94%9F

[17]  http://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/active/guideposts.html

[18]  http://www.thebuddhadharma.com/web-archive/2007/9/1/a-challenge-to-buddhists.html

[19]  http://www.thebuddhadharma.com/web-archive/2007/9/1/a-challenge-to-buddhists.html

[20]  http://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/active/ourHistory.html

[21]  http://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/active/financialInfo.html

[22]  http://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/active/guideposts.html

[23]  http://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/active/donation.php

[24]  Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi. 2013 Message to BGR Walks to Feed the Hungry. Email document file.

Received March 15, 2014.

[25] The phrase “new social face” is lifted from the title of Ken Jones’ important contribution to

Buddhist social activism. The New Social Face of Buddhism: A Call to Action, (Boston:

Wisdom Publications, 2003).

[26] Frank Tedesco, “Dying in Modern Korea” in David W. Chappell and Karma Lekshe Tsomo, eds.,

Living and Dying in Buddhist Cultures, (Manoa:Buddhist Studies Program, University of

Hawai’i, 1994), 115-119.

[27]  For scanty data, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seongsu_Bridge

[28]  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampoong_Department_Store_collapse. This article includes photos.

[29]  Frank M. Tedesco, “Abortion in Korea” in Damien Keown, ed., Buddhism and Abortion (Honolulu:

University of Hawaii Press, 1999), Chapter 7, 121-155.

[30]  Frank M. Tedesco, “Social Engagement in South Korean Buddhism” in Action Buddhism: New

Studies in Engaged Buddhism, eds. Christopher Queen, Charles Prebish and Damien Keown

(London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), 176-177.

[31]  Frank Tedesco. “Questions for Buddhist and Christian Cooperation in Korea”, Buddhist-Christian

Studies, 17, 1997. 179-195.

[32]  For mostly convert Buddhist groups in Florida, see http://www.smiling-buddha.com/fldharma/

[33]   David W. Chappell. “Racial Diversity in the Soka Gakkai” in Queen, Christopher S., ed. Engaged

Buddhism in the West. Boston: Wisdom, 2000.184-17.

[34]  Sumi Loundon Kim, “Family Programming in Buddhist Community” in Giles, Cheryl A. and

Miller, Willa B., The Arts of Contemplative Care. (Boston: Wisdom, 2012). 315-323.

[35]   “What Would Sid Do? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lodro-rinzler/

[36]   Kabat-Zinn, Jon. Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face

Stress, Pain, and Illness. (New York: Delta,1990).

[37]  “While the dominant orientation of Western culture toward death is avoidance, for over 2,500 years

Buddhists have studied the question of how one can best live in the presence of death. In a

sense, a life-threatening injury or disease makes Buddhists of us all, waking us from the

illusion of immortality, suddenly and from that time forth. From the moment of diagnosis, death

becomes the bell that won't stop ringing” Ira Byock, M.D. , Forward to Joan Halifax. Being with

Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death. (Boston:

Shambhala, 2008). xi.

[38]  One of the most popular Buddhist books in the West for dealing with death is the classic by an

affable Tibetan lama.  Sogyal Rinpoche. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. (New York:

HarperSanFrancisco, 1992). There are a plethora  of compassionate end-of-life books on the

market now. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s books are among the classics. Buddhist translations and

modern handbooks for healing and dying abound.

[39]  Cheryl A.Giles and Willa B Miller. The Arts of Contemplative Care. (Boston: Wisdom, 2012). 325. 

[40]  Max Zahn. Buddhist volunteers comfort families of those lost on Flight 370. March 27, 2014.

      http://www.tricycle.com/blog/buddhist-volunteers-comfort-families-those-lost-flight-370